Outspoken: Blake Shelton, Rosie O’Donnell and more…

— Out lesbian fashion designer Kara Laricks, who will compete on NBC’s new reality show “Fashion Star,” which debuted March 13. (March 9, afterellen.com)

“I have an important message, all the bling and Mercedes aside: I’m an openly gay Persian man. According to the president of the country I was born in, I don’t even exist.”

Reza Farahan, a star on Bravo’s new reality series “Shas of Sunset.” Farahan says he was inspired to do the show by the It Get’s Better Project. (AP, March 10)

“It is my deepest hope that the LikeMe Lighthouse will stand tall, illuminating hope in every direction for all who have a need, whether it’s one of the many great, local LGBT advocacy groups … the not-quite-out 19-year-old … or the parents of the 14-year-old who sat his folks down the night before and nervously said, “Mom, Dad… I think I might be gay… “

— Out country singer Chely Wright, who on March 10 cut the the ribbon outside the LikeMe Lighthouse, an LGBT community center in Kansas City, MO. The center is a part of Wright’s LIKEME organization, “a non-profit dedicated to providing education, assistance and resources to LGBT teens and their family and friends.” (Huffington Post, March 10)

“If you erased all the gay people from the history of the world, the culture would be really lacking, do you know that, Kirk? It’s so not pious. It’s very un-Christlike Kirk. Really. If you want to follow the Jesus model man, don’t go shaming people like that for who they are.”

Rosie O’Donnell responds to Kirk Cameron’s stance on gay marriage, which he called “unnatural,” “detrimental and ultimately distractive,” in a March 2 interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan. (OWN YouTube channel, March 9)

Top photo: Blake Shelton (via Facebook )